JOSE GUILLERMO GARCIA MERINO - EL SALVADOR

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06508154
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 8, 2019
• Case Number: F-2017-01057
• Publication Date: February 1, 1983

Approved for Release: 2019/07/29 C06508154
Jose Guillermo GARCIA Merino
(Phonetic: garSEEah)
Minister of Defense
(since October 1979)
Addressed as;
Mr. Minister
One of the most intelligent officers in the
Salvadoran Army, Gen. Jose Guillermo Garcia has
been the strongman in the government since the
October 1979 coup. Since the March 1982
elections, Garcia has supported President Alvaro
Magaila and other moderates in the government in
their struggle for political dominance over the
extreme rightists, who are led by Constituent
Assembly President Roberto D'Aubuisson.
Politically conservative, Garcia was considered by
the military as a possible choice for president in the mid-1970s.
he would like to run for president in the elections scheduled for March I 98921
EL SALVADOR
Over the past year Garcia has lost support among the military. The January 1983
rebellion of Lt. Col. Sigifredo Ochoa in Cabatias Department dramatically symbolizes that
loss. Many Salvadoran military and political officials believe that Garcia's position has
become so eroded as a result of the Ochoa incident that he will be forced to resign within the
next several months:1e7�
United States.
Garcia is anti-Communist and friendly toward the
His record on human rights abuses in his country is
mixed, however; like most Salvadoran military officers, he has been primarily concerned
with the destruction of the insurgent movement:le}.,,.
After graduating from the Military Academy in 1956. Garcia. rose rapidly through the
Army ranks. Hc attended the War College in Mexico during 1966-70 and took an
orientation tour of the Panama Canal Zone in 1963. Before the 1979 coup, he had served
since July 1978 as commander of San Vicente Department:1bl.--
Garcia, 49, is married and has four daughters."(th-...
CR M 83-10618
1 February 1983
Approved for Release: 2019/07/29 C06508154